page_title: 2016 Summer Olympics opening ceremony
section_title: Cauldron
hierarchical_section_title: 2016 Summer Olympics opening ceremony / Cauldron
caption_attribution_description: Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima lights the Olympic cauldron during the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. U.S. Army photo by Tim Hipps, IMCOM Public Affairs.
context_page_description: The opening ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on the evening of Friday 5 August 2016 in the Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, starting at 20:00 BRT. As mandated by the Olympic Charter, the proceedings combined the formal ceremonial opening of this international sporting event with an artistic spectacle to showcase the host nation's culture and history. The Games were officially opened by Acting President of Brazil Michel Temer.
  Directed by Fernando Meirelles, Daniela Thomas and Andrucha Waddington, the ceremony featured presentations of the history and culture of Brazil, including its landscape and forests, the history of the Brazilian people dating back to the arrival of the Portuguese, music and samba, and the favelas among other aspects. Portions of the ceremony were also dedicated to the topics of environmental conservation and climate change. The ceremony was intended to have a significantly lower cost than those of other recent Olympics, with a reported budget under R$20,433,298.
  The ceremony was praised by the international media for its vivid, diverse performances, emphasis on multiculturalism, and its appeal to the issue of climate change.
context_section_description: The cauldron was lit by Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima, marathon bronze medallist at the 2004 Summer Olympics and recipient of Pierre de Coubertin medal. It had been speculated that Brazilian footballer Pelé would light the cauldron, but he was unable to attend the ceremony because of health problems.
  As part of the organizers' appeal to environmental protection and global warming, the Olympic cauldron took on a simpler form in comparison to past designs; it was designed to produce a smaller volume of flame and fewer emissions than previous cauldrons. To enhance the lighting of the smaller flame, it was accompanied by a kinetic sculpture by Anthony Howe, featuring spinning bars of reflective spheres and plates that are designed to evoke the "pulsing energy and reflection of light" of the sun. The sculpture is 12.2 metres (40 ft) in diameter, and has a weight of 1,815 kilograms (4,001 lb).
  A version of the cauldron was placed on public display in a plaza in front of the Candelária Church. The public cauldron was lit by Jorge Gomes, a 14-year-old runner who was adopted out of poverty and had participated in Rio's Vila Olímpica program – which provides access to sports training facilities to disadvantaged youth.
caption: Vanderlei de Lima lighting the Olympic cauldron.
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